Despite the fact that MIUI 12.5 was presented in February, has not yet made much of an appearance in the European Xiaomi. The first to receive it was the Redmi Note 10S, a terminal that is not yet for sale.
We have been able to test this ROM in a POCO F3 since, being the Redmi K40 in China, we were able to flash the file there. We already expect that MIUI 12.5 is a substantial leap from the previous version, an update that not only fixes bugs, but also makes important changes.
A great refinement at the level of the interface
As soon as you start to configure the phone we see that the quick start menus have changed. Everything drinks with a similar aesthetic to iOS, but the truth is, it looks pretty good on it.
The launcher is still the same, although there are some aesthetic changes in the icons, now more refined and, most importantly, dynamic. It means that icons can change shape and content
Now by default we have the new iPhone type control center, although we can always go back to the quick settings bar of a lifetime.
Of course, by swiping to the right, at least in this Chinese ROM, we have a screen with quick access to applications, fully customizable storage manager, step counter and more. In the European ROM we will surely see Google Discover, as in MIUI 12.
Another aesthetic change is that now the notification icons are colored, like the good old times. If we want to keep the black and white icons in the notification bar, we can do that easily from the settings, but this change caught our attention.
When we open the settings, we see significant changes. The “about phone” menu is now called “my device” and it’s even cleaner. The technical sheet appears directly in this menu, as well as factory reset, backup and more options.
The wallpaper settings have been completely redesigned which is now a joy. In terms of the interface, it is the best care menu of all MIUI 12.5, relying on a variety of fairly large wallpapers. They are divided by categories, with dozens of backgrounds in each of them. The awesome wallpapers could not be missing, custom animated backgrounds.
The topics section has been integrated here, as well as the configuration of the Always On Display for mobile phones with an AMOLED display. The customization options are therefore much better organized
There are also major changes in the sounds of the system. Now all are oriented towards nature, quite elaborate, in stereo and with great sound quality.
Another of the big changes to the settings menu is the specific section on “ screen hours ”. It is a separate menu from the battery menu, where it shows us the hours of the day, the week and we can set limits for screen hours. We are also told how many times we have locked the device.
Xiaomi is banking on its own “Digital Wellbeing” section so that we can monitor screen time and phone usage in detail.
As OnePlus does with its Zen mode, here we have a mode of concentration so that we leave the phone I want as long as we want. Focus mode only allows you to use the camera and make emergency calls, and it cannot be turned off once we turn it on.
In terms of confidentiality, the improvements are quite striking. In the privacy protection section now we have one app per app monitoring when permissions were used. That is, we can know when and how many times an app has used certain permissions.
In addition to these news, bloatware has been significantly reduced, more apps can be deleted from the system and there are only seven core apps: phone, messages, security, clock, settings, camera and gallery.
The sound settings also change. Now we can configure do not disturb mode directly from the sound panel, which has improved in terms of the interface. By simply swiping over the Do Not Disturb bar, we’re adding time to it.
In terms of performance, now the gestures are faster, the animations have been slightly reduced and the system promises use less CPU load to save power. Likewise, the system saves space to process the gestures separately, thus reducing the CPU load.
MIUI 12.5 is one of the big updates of the year, although it may seem like a small jump from MIUI 12, there is a huge list of changes.
Finally, a fairly relevant update, not only to fix the bugs of MIUI 12, but to make hungry while it arrives (or not) to our device MIUI 13. Despite the fact that its name does not indicate it, MIUI 12.5 is one of the most big updates from Xiaomi in recent years, with big changes and important improvements at the system level.
